By [For the month of July, we will be covering the New York Asian Film Festival and the (also New York-based) Japan Cuts Film Festival, which together form one of the largest showcases of Asian cinema in the world. For our NYAFF coverage, head over here. For Japan Cuts, here.]
I didn’t like The King of Pigs all that much, but that wasn’t director Yeun Sang-ho’s fault. Instead, the blame lay almost exclusively on the terrible people behind the terrible translation. I was lucky enough to sit down and talk with Yeun Sang-ho (full interview and pterodactyl photo coming later this week), and I asked him about what he’s got coming up. It certainly sounds interesting.
After The King of Pigs, I made a short that’s about 30 minutes long about my army experience… or about the army. And the next feature I will be working on [is roughly translated to] mean “fake religion” or “cultic religion,” and it’s going to be released early next year. I’m working on that right now.
Cults are always interesting, but I can’t think of very many animated feature films that deal with the topic. Certainly not ones that aren’t in some way related to an existing property. If that sounds cool to you (and it should), keep reading for a few more tidbits of information.
What is your new movie about?
In Korea, there are many cultic religions. Primarily based on Methodist Christianity, actually. Something that would derive from Christianity, not really a dominant thing, more cultic. And [the film] will take place in this village that is going to sink, meaning by the national plan of… for a reservoir. So they would actually sink the whole area for the reservoir. So the village is going to get sunk, so the story takes place in that village…, [and] the religion gets involved in the village. It’s an apocalyptic village, and fake religion gets into that village.
I think this story has a lot of potential. The King of Pigs, for all its technical problems, was a fascinating look at some really intense things. Middle school is not generally thought of as such a horrible place (at least, not in America), so it will be interesting to see just how dark a film about an apocalyptic village invaded by a cult will be.
I’m excited. I just hope it has a better goddamn translation.